Mike D’Antoni’s potential fit with the Philadelphia 76ers
Mike D’Antoni spent four seasons with the Rockets before being fired after their second-round loss to the Lakers, compiling a record of 217-101 (68.2%), making the playoffs each of the four years and helping lead the team to the Western Conference Finals in 2018. Before that he had stints with the Nuggets, Suns, Knicks, and Lakers, getting three of the four teams to the playoffs.
I believe the thinking behind hiring D’Antoni for the Sixers would be the hopes that he could maximize Simmons’s playmaking ability in the pick and roll, as well as in the open floor with his run n’ gun offensive system.
Philadelphia has the personnel to succeed playing at the pace D’Antoni would want, but I don’t think they have the pieces to shoot the 3 at the rate his offense needs, and hiring D’Antoni would hurt Embiid’s offensive production significantly. Only 36 percent of the Sixers field goal attempts and 31.5 percent of their points came from beyond the arc this past season. A stark contrast to the Rockets who under D’Antoni, took 50.1 percent of their field-goal attempts and scored 39.8 percent of their points from beyond the arc in 2020.
D’Antoni also won’t fix any of the issues Philadelphia has on the defensive end of the floor and the added offensive responsibility Simmons would take on in his system, would take away from him being one of the best defenders in the league. The Sixers ranked ninth in defensive rating (108.4), third in opponent second-chance points (11.6), and second in defensive rebound percentage (77.5%).
All those areas would drastically come down for Philadelphia with D’Antoni as a coach and the biggest thing to me again is the fit with Embiid isn’t a good one. Houston was dead last in post touch points (1.0) a season ago, Philadelphia was first (10.7) often feeding Embiid the ball down low. I just don’t think the two of them mesh well from a philosophical x’s and o’s type standpoint and given Embiid’s personality, I’m not sure you want to entertain that pairing not working out in a potentially toxic way.
It’s fun to think of what he could do with this Sixers offense and Ben Simmons, but I just don’t view Mike D’Antoni as the coach to get them over the proverbial hump.